Quote:
Originally Posted by GGG
SHould we (Canada) take down Nellie Mclung statues and replace them with Native heros?
I think history being messy is important. A sanitized version isn't great. A statue of Lee should be left and context created around it to explain his role and the acts that followed.
By sanitizing history you miss the detail.
Malcolm Gladwells revisionist history podcast has some excellent episodes on racism and the civil rights movement and how it has been misrepresented overtime.
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These comparisons are, forgive me, idiotic.
Did Nellie Mclung start a war to separate from Canada in order to practice eugenics? Were commemorations of her put up to celebrate her role in legislating eugenics? Is there a significant part of the alberta population that drives around with Eugenics flags celebrating Nellie McLung? Did statues of her gain in popularity as a protest after alberta's eugenics laws were repealed?
No?
Oh.
Removing a statue of a confederate general put up in the 1950s or 60s is not, in any way, sanitizing history. A confederate general statue that is less than 100 years old is immaterial to an understanding of history. Even age itself does not confer historical value. It is a vessel void of historical importance. It will only gain historical significance in another 50 or so years for discussion of the events around it's removal, not for existing in the first place.
Sanitizing history is what happens in american classrooms regularly, not public debate and removal of confederate statues erected in the height of racial tensions following and in response to federal desegregation.